NASA launched it on October 13 of this year His probe is called Psyche On a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The primary purpose of the spacecraft is to examine the asteroid 16 Psyche (Pszukhy), which has a diameter of about 226 kilometers and is believed to be rich in minerals, but several other experiments are also scheduled to be conducted.
This involves testing a new level of communications and data transmission in space and between space and Earth. Accordingly, Psyche has carried a new experimental device powered by a near-infrared laser, which can provide 10 to 100 times the bandwidth of current radio wave methods. Revolutionizing space exploration in this field.
On its way to the asteroid orbiting at an average distance of 3 astronomical units (CsE – the average distance from the Sun to the Earth), NASA specialists have already begun testing the Psyche laser data transmission system since November 14. 62.5, 100, and then 267 megabits per second, they also received a transmission from him, and on December 11, from a distance of 31 million kilometers, a short high-resolution video clip was also sent with him to the Palomar Observatory of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Caltech JPL) of the California Institute of Technology.
“One of the goals of Psyche is to demonstrate the ability to transmit high-bandwidth data over millions of kilometres. Psyche itself does not record video, so usually we just send out random test signals, but to make the occasion even more memorable, this time we made a fun recording with propulsion laboratory specialists The jet. – said pilot project manager Bill Klipstein.
We’ve already shot it in the intro: Yes, it’s a cat video, in which the red-and-white tortoiseshell cat of one of JPL’s employees, Taters, plays with a laser pointer.
Here’s the first video of the interplanetary kitty:
